I agree about TWN being a sort of 'dry run' for FotH—I do think the central relationship in this book is much better developed and more interesting, if not quite so id-tastically over-the-top.
It's more equal in complication on both sides; the idtastic is more subordinated to the story; the political research is still meticulous, but the cast of characters is wider and the sense of place is much stronger. Also the main female character still exists as a point of mediation between the two men, but she has a lot more of a personality and I personally appreciate the absence of jealousy regarding her bond with one of the men, which in The Wounded Name was valuable as a gauge of Laurent's emotions and otherwise I could have done without.
Ah, so Sutcliff did read Broster! That similarity had also occurred to me, and it's great to have it confirmed.
Sutcliff feels like the closest descendant of my acquaintance, although it is very likely that there are others, especially since it's been more than a half-century since she started publishing, this sentence derailed by my remembrance of Megan Whalen Turner, who not only nicked the dolphin ring for her own classically-inspired worldbuilding, she has acknowledged The Eagle of the Ninth as the model for one of her later novels, in which the m/m is textual. I don't remember her citing Broster among her influences, but she got her at least secondhand, and she did cite writers like Orczy, MacLean, Dunnett, so she's in the right vicinity. Huh. I really need to read the conclusion to that series. I have been following it for literally twenty-five years now.
(And, returning to the 'did they mean it like that' question, it's certainly a possibility Sutcliff was aware of for her characters, given the canon m/m relationship in Sword at Sunset).
Agreed. Also, she is another writer where in some instances I don't see how they couldn't.
And that line about the trees is one of my favourites—aww, Keith...
It feels characteristic of both Keith and the novel that that simile ends with him deciding that the roots of their intimacy must be severed and the scene ends with him cutting a lock of Ewen's hair.
no subject
It's more equal in complication on both sides; the idtastic is more subordinated to the story; the political research is still meticulous, but the cast of characters is wider and the sense of place is much stronger. Also the main female character still exists as a point of mediation between the two men, but she has a lot more of a personality and I personally appreciate the absence of jealousy regarding her bond with one of the men, which in The Wounded Name was valuable as a gauge of Laurent's emotions and otherwise I could have done without.
Ah, so Sutcliff did read Broster! That similarity had also occurred to me, and it's great to have it confirmed.
Sutcliff feels like the closest descendant of my acquaintance, although it is very likely that there are others, especially since it's been more than a half-century since she started publishing, this sentence derailed by my remembrance of Megan Whalen Turner, who not only nicked the dolphin ring for her own classically-inspired worldbuilding, she has acknowledged The Eagle of the Ninth as the model for one of her later novels, in which the m/m is textual. I don't remember her citing Broster among her influences, but she got her at least secondhand, and she did cite writers like Orczy, MacLean, Dunnett, so she's in the right vicinity. Huh. I really need to read the conclusion to that series. I have been following it for literally twenty-five years now.
(And, returning to the 'did they mean it like that' question, it's certainly a possibility Sutcliff was aware of for her characters, given the canon m/m relationship in Sword at Sunset).
Agreed. Also, she is another writer where in some instances I don't see how they couldn't.
And that line about the trees is one of my favourites—aww, Keith...
It feels characteristic of both Keith and the novel that that simile ends with him deciding that the roots of their intimacy must be severed and the scene ends with him cutting a lock of Ewen's hair.